Cab-wheel



W. W. SNOW.

Car Wheel.

Patented Feb. 19, 1861.

Inventum Witnesses:

IVILLIAM lV. SNO\V, 0F JERSEY CITY, NEW' JERSEY.

CAR-WHEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,488, dated February 19', 1861.

. To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IVILLIAH IV. SNOW, of Jersey City, in the county ofHudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain 'new and usefulImprovements in the Construction of Car-lllheels; and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ofthe same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making apart of this specification, in which- Figure l, represents a perspectiveview of the wheel, taken from its front side. Fig. 2, represents an edgeview showing the folds of the corrugated plate, as they appear on thetread of the wheel-said folds, or corrugations being dotted in. Fig. 3,represents a vertical transverse section through the wheel.

Similar letters of reference where they occur in the separate figuresdenote like parts in all the drawings.

It is found in practice, that. a double plate car wheel, is muchsuperior to a single plate wheel, for two reasons-first because there ismore certainty of chilling without damaging the wheel; and secondly thatwhen a double plate wheel cracks, or is likely to give way, it will bedetected before any serious damage is done, as one plate may be soundenough to support the tread, while the wheel will under the tap of thehammer indicate a crack or break, without actually giving way, as asingle plate would do under similar circumstances. The main diflicultywith a double plate wheel is in adapting it to an outside journal Wheel,as the position of the hub to the rim becomes changed in such anapplication of them, and makes a bad union .between the hub plates, andrim of the wheel, and a wide space between them at the rim, where thegreatest strain and wear comes-the consequence of which is that thewheels often split open on the tread. rIhe double plate inside journalwheel is subject to the same difficulty but in a less degree, the spacebetween the plates not necessarily being so wide.

My invention has for its object the over-` metal ,-providing forcontraction and expansion, without unequal strain. It is well known towheel makers, that the plate that is top when cast is much the weakest,and

first to break, the iron cooling more rapidly. l

My combined, convex and corrugated plate, being much stronger than theconvex alone, I cast up thus equalizing the two; and the uniting pointof the convex and corrugations serves to radiate the heat from hub torim.

I am aware that a double plate wheel has been made with its back platecorrugated, but this brings the corrugations near the flange of thewheel where strength is not required, and when used as an outside ournalwheel produces unequal length of plates which causes a great strainbesides making a. bad wheel otherwise-the front plate bein@- madeconcave to kee o it near to the back plate. Such a wheel I lay no claimto.

My invention consists in making a double plate car wheel, the back ofwhich is a plain convex plate and the front plate of which is convex inform, with folds or corruga-` tions, where it oins the rim, that run ina waved or Zig Zag line across the rim to give it strength, the otherparts of the wheel being made and united as shown in the drawing.

To enable others skilled in the art, to make and use my invention I willproceed to describe the same, with reference to the drawings.

A, represents the front, and B, the back plate of the wheel. They areunited at the center to form the hub C, and extend thence in a convexform toward the rim D, where the plate B, unites with the flange A,while the plate A near its periphery is run out into a series of foldsor corrugations C, that cross in a waved or Zig Zag lines, the rim or`tread of the wheel as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2, so that itwould be impossible for the wheel to split on the. tread, while thecorrugations come immediately under or behind where all the strain isthrown upon the wheel. The corrugations upon the back plate would it istrue strengthen the flange of the wheel, but the flange sustains butlittle strain, and does not'require strength beyond what it has withinitself, but the tread does require all the strength that can be given toit, within reasonable limits, so far vas weight of metal is concerned,and hence I corrugate the face plate and not the back plate of thewheel. gated near its perimeter so as to cross the I have alsorepresented ribs e, across the rim or tread in a waved line, and theback tread these have been used before in other plate being Convex anduniting with the wheels, and I lay no claim to them indiiange, and thewhole Constructed substan- 5 Vidually. tially as set forth and for thepurpose 15 I-Iaving thus fully described the construospecified. tion ofmy car wheel, what I claim therein IVM. W. SNOW. as new is- Iitnesses:

Uniting the hub and rim of a ear wheel J. I. SCOTT, 10 by two plates,the front one being corru- DAVID BEDFORD.

